Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The General Assembly Session Begins Today

The General Assembly technically starts at noon today, but the Senate Finance Committee Subcommittee on public education met yesterday afternoon, and Sarah Herzog, legislative analyst for public education issues, presented an Overview of the Governor's Proposed Amendments to the 2010-2012 Budget for Public Education and Other Education Agencies. Although the Governor had one half of a billion dollars in additional revenue, he actually cut public education by over $50 million. In light of the more than 14 percent cuts in public education funding since 2009, at least some of the additional funds should have gone to repairing the damage to our schools.

Job #1 for your VEA lobbyists will be to urge legislators to develop a budget proposal more in keeping with the values of Virginia – a budget which restores our investment in the education of the children of Virginia.